CSR meets leadership development at Hays - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

CSR meets leadership development at Hays - Viewpoint - careers advice blog The challenging global economic and financial environment, combined with increasing regulatory control, governance and reporting requirements, has meant that businesses have been forced to reappraise their approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At Hays we have entwined CSR with a senior leadership development programme and have shown it is possible to deliver a positive investment return by combining CSR and leadership development. A disruptive design We purposefully designed a ‘disruptive’ learning event â€" one that tackled leadership development from an emotional as well as intellectual angle. The aim was to tackle a strategic challenge our community partners faced but didn’t have the resources or expertise to address. In particular, these challenges all had the theme of using employment as a means to improve the life experience of those using the services provided by our partners. Participants brought the benefit of their prior learning and experience to the programme and worked with the various stakeholders to collect data and then from its analysis to develop meaningful insights. The service users of our partners â€" including the homeless, those suffering with mental health and / or addiction issues and those recently released from prison â€" were key stakeholders and our participants spent much time listening to their needs and hearing their life-stories. Many participants found this to be both a very moving and also inspiring part of the experience. They quickly came to the understanding that this wasn’t a leadership simulation but about real life and real people. The programme concluded with recommendations for change being made to our partners senior management teams â€" changes that could help our partners further improve the services they could offer their clients at the time of most need. Coaching was provided to participants throughout the programme and they were also given the time and space to think about: themselves their behaviours their personal assumptions how these impacted on others â€" including other participants, the community partner staff and their clients and other stakeholders. . Reflecting the global nature of this programme our community partners have included Action for Children and St Mungo’s (UK), the Barka Foundation (Poland), and the Sir David Martin Foundation and the Westmead Children’s Hospital (Australia). Benefits we have seen The most important result for Hays was the delivery of a cadre of managers who could execute the global strategy and have seen a highly significant improvement in succession readiness from the participant group. Our community partners have benefitted as well and have been very satisfied with the results and have accrued a range benefits. Pleasingly, each partner has reported tangible results and sustainable relationship with Hays. Benefits for the wider community Hays has seen a positive return on its investment in this programme. In fact, we have exceeded our original ambition for the programme in a number of ways. There have been benefits for all stakeholders including: Hays Hays participants community partner employees and leadership teams clients of the community partners organisations such as national and local government departments, health and social care providers, other client service providers. By helping our community partners to become more effective in the delivery of their services then we have contributed in a real way to improvements in the life experiences of those using the service of our partners and the wider community. To find out more about this initiative, please watch our video: Engage with fellow HR professionals across the globe and stay up to date with the latest HR news, by joining our LinkedIn group, HR Insights with Hays.